Have a Great Trip! - New Travel Kit Provides People With Diabetes a Unique Resource to Help With Pre-Trip Planning and Offers Tips for Their Journey

An average Boeing 737 carries nearly 10 passengers who have diabetes; one person in about every five cars on the road also has diabetes-as do more than 20 million Americans, according to the American Diabetes Association. Whether you're going on a weekend getaway or a once-in-a-lifetime excursion across Europe, if you have diabetes, careful preparation is an essential component of getting ready for your trip.

There is a new, free resource available for people with diabetes to help them travel with ease and confidence (downloadable at www.accu-chek.com/travel). It offers some tips, lists and suggestions to help them prepare for the journey and make the most of their excursion.

The diabetes travel kit includes:

-- "Have a Great Trip!" brochure, which details useful tips such as handling testing supplies and medications on trips, traveling across time zones, and special circumstances like traveling with an insulin pump

-- A Doctor's Declaration/medical certificate form that lists the physician's contact information and approves the user to be carrying diabetes supplies (helpful when going through airport security, border crossings and customs)

-- Packing lists

-- Emergency Identification card

-- Foreign Language phrase book, which translates some key phrases for people with diabetes into French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish

"It is important for people with diabetes to pay a little extra attention to their health while traveling and changing routines in order to maintain good diabetes control. For example, learning the 'carb counts' of foreign cuisine and gathering medical resources information for your destination are part of the planning process," said Christy Parkin, registered nurse and certified diabetes educator. "The ACCU-CHEK(R) Travel Kit is a great resource for planning the trip, and it is a useful take-along tool while you're away."